Anderson .Paak and Cordae combine forces on their first collaborative set to reign on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart with Heavy Is the Crown. For each artist, the project becomes a first leader on the list.
Heavy Is the Crown launches with 30,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States for the tracking week of Oct. 23-29, according to Luminate. Album sales contributed 19,000 units to the total, streaming activity brought in 11,000 units, and there was a negligible amount of track-equivalent sales activity. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 1,000 paid/subscription tier or 2,500 ad-supported tier of official on-demand audio and video streams for a song on the album.)
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Before the Crown coronation, Anderson .Paak reached Top Rap Albums with Yes Lawd!, under Nxwrries, his duo with producer Knxwledge, which reached No. 3 in November 2016, and Oxnard, which peaked at No. 5 in December 2018. The performer, whose music spans hip-hop, R&B and other genres, has also been a consistent R&B presence with his own albums, including Malibu and Ventura and via his Silk Sonic collaboration with Bruno Mars, whose An Evening With Silk Sonic album debuted at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
For Cordae, Heavy Is the Crown follows The Lost Boy, a No. 6 success in August 2019, and From a Birds Eye View, which earned a No. 4 best in January 2022.
Elsewhere, the new collaborative album opens at No. 2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 11 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
“Airbender” leads the album’s 11 tracks in terms of songs performance, with a No. 21 debut on Hot Rap Songs. With 2.4 million official U.S. on-demand streams, it was the album’s most-streamed song of the week. The entrance secures Anderson .Paak’s first entry on Hot Rap Songs, while Cordae lands his fourth; he first arrived when he and Jack Harlow featured on Eminem’s “Killer,” a No. 16 hit in August 2021, and followed with a NF collaboration (“Careful,” No. 20 in April 2023) and a teamup with Lyrical Lemonade and Juice WRLD (“Doomsday.,” No. 15 in July 2023).
